The Minister of Justice Anisul Huq has decided to accept the appeals from the square and from the world of politics. Until now, capital punishment in the country was only provided for those who committed sexual killings.
The anger has been growing since last week, after the spread on social media of a group rape against a 37-year-old woman, belonging to the most disadvantaged segment of the population, who had been filmed in turn by the men who were raping her.
An investigation conducted by the National Human Rights Commission revealed that the woman had already been raped several times before. After the video appeared, eight men were arrested.
In another case, also last week, another woman reported being raped by several members of the ruling party’s youth wing. The police made numerous arrests.
For this reason, after what has already happened in Algeria, Tunisia and India, demonstrators in Bangladesh – including many students – took to the streets under the motto of “hang them” to say enough to the increase in sexual violence.
According to the local association Ain-o-Salish Kendra, cases of this kind have been increasing in recent years. From January to September, the NGO denounces that one fifth of the thousand reported reports of sexual assault were attributed to “gangs of rapists”. “Will I be next?” read the placard of a girl who took part in the procession in Dhaka.
This year alone, the activists underline, there are at least a thousand cases of rape reported in the country, but it is assumed that the real number is much higher, since many women decide not to turn to the authorities because, in the cases reported, the percentage of sentencing is very low.
The amendment approved by the Bengali government represents a defeat for human rights defenders, who support the universal moratorium on the death penalty launched by the United Nations General Assembly. According to data from Amnesty International, the Bangladesh is among the countries that still carry out death sentences, with two executions in 2019. However, the NGO underlined that in the same year this sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 24 cases.
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